The Rare Insight The Best Companies Have About Management

Most engineering managers [EMs] are bad and aren't much more than glorified, overpaid whip-crackers. Here's what the world's best tech companies realize about engineering management that other companies don't.

Here are the core points:

• Good EMs think long-term - It's really easy to burn out the team for short-term gains, just working them harder and harder so everything ships quickly. However, this isn't hard to do and sacrifices the future of the team. Teams run this way eventually reach a state of weak productivity due to high turnover and completely drained engineers. Good EMs strive to operate their teams in a sustainable way, taking care of their engineers while also pushing for velocity.
• Good tech companies hold EMs accountable - In particular, EMs are expected to uphold the overall health and integrity of their teams. Companies like Meta explicitly score managers on how well they are able to give their engineers growth opportunities, preserve their work-life balance, and shield them from thrash so they have the focus to execute.

Related resources:

• [Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager - The full video where this clip was taken from
• How Do Effective Engineering Leaders Help Their Teams Achieve More?
• "How do I figure out whether I should stay as an IC engineer or explore management as an EM?"
• "What are the commonalities and differences between tech leads and engineering managers?"